The Annual Town Census in Massachusetts
Although I faintly remember hearing something about the annual town censuses in Massachusetts, it wasn’t until I was playing with Google today that it was brought to my attention again. I ran across an article in the Providence Journal that detailed the Rehoboth Census Form for 2009.
It seems that every household in town gets one of these annual census forms that must be filled out and returned to the town. The census is conducted as of the first of January under the auspices of the Board of Registrars. In addition to the name, address, date of birth, occupation, veteran status and number of dogs, the form includes a section for school information required by the school department. I could not tell from the article whether every person in the household is listed by name or not, but I’m assuming they are.
There is a separate application for dog licenses enclosed with census form. I wonder if the dogs’ names get recorded? Now that could make for some interesting genealogical/historical data 100 years from now…
It seems that the data collected is used for a number of things, including:
- State college entrance applications
- Veterans’ benefits
- Amending and establishing birth records
- Locating missing persons
- Establishing precinct lines
- Predicting future school enrollment
- State and federal funding to the town
- Police and fire protection
- Updating the voting list and other legal purposes.
After running across the article in the Providence Journal, I googled for more articles dealing with other Massachusetts towns, and sure enough, there were all kinds of them.
My question is this - What happens to these town census records? Are the statistics recorded and then the originals destroyed? Are there laws that effect how the original census records are dealt with? I’m sure there are. Comments from folks acquainted with these records would be appreciated.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:08 am
The info is only about 70-75% accurate, since there is no penalty for just throwing the form away. It does prove a veteran lived in town if they apply for a war bonus, but not federal or special benefits.
A voter can not be dropped if they do not return the form, so long as they register to vote in time for an election. The process dates back to the 1800s, before federal census took their place. Believe it or not, they do keep these records for a long time, even though the data is entered into a computer.